A new more efficient hybrid? The finance-IT guy all in one?

I just came across an
article on CFO.com by Jason Karaian about "a new breed of executive - equally fluent in the ways of finance and IT which is bridging the gap between two traditionally adversarial roles" which raised some interesting points.

The article talks of a few notable examples of new positions cropping up which aim to bridge the divide between the two groups. One example given is of Joseph Anichebe who serves as IT CFO of the investment banking arm of UBS. Anichebe rightly articulates that "It's no bad thing for a 'healthy tension' to exist between finance and IT."

The article given it is on CFO.com takes a very finance-centric view of the issue but contains some interesting points. Karaian writes, "Few corporate relationships can become as strained as that between finance and IT. The stubbornly high number of IT projects that are completed over budget, late or lacking important capabilities - and sometimes all three - is a key source of friction. It doesn't help that both functions speak their own highly specialized language, which is often unintelligible to other parts of the company."

The first part of the above about IT projects coming in over budget, over time and under scope is certainly true. I've heard it echoed by many IT and finance organizations I've talked to. And given the entire ecosystem of consultants and software vendors out there who are trying to help companies with these issues, it's obvious that this is a widely prevalent issue. It's also obvious that given these software companies and consultants have been tackling the issue for years and years, they don't know the answer.

The second part of the above is less accurate. As I'd commented in previous posts (check out my recent
Medtronic posting about this), the language of finance is the language of business - revenues, expenses, profits, etc. So this is one where IT people are best served by trying to understand these concepts and put their efforts and strategies forward in these terms instead of fighting it.

As a result of the above, however, the author claims that this type of hybrid executive is becoming more prominent because of their ability to straddle both worlds. The ideas espoused by the most progressive and solutions-oriented organizations focus on building a robust partnership between IT and Finance. If a hybrid executive can help in this effort, there is likely to be a steady stream of demand for this type of talent in organizations.

“I like the approach. IT is simple, but there are many participants in our industry who use IT complexity as a make work exercise. [you have] summed it up beautifully...simple to understand...simple to explain!”

Your comment above, “It is also obvious that given these software companies and consultants have been tackling the issue for years and years, they do not know the answer”, caught my eye.

If you do not have time to read the article, here is a very brief summary.

The answer is to think of IT as being the flow of data between business assets.

If you take this approach, then techniques used in the Oil & Gas industries for many years can be applied in any sector.

In Oil and Gas, the introduction of digital monitoring equipment means flows of product are analogous to flows of data. These flows are displayed, monitored and trended in dollars per second.

This means business processes can be optimised around value, and the contribution each asset makes to the cost/value of the flow can be evaluated in business (monetary) terms.

Today, business resources (which includes people) and IT assets are either providers of data, consumers of data or provide the conduit through which the data can flow.

The role of IT is to support, process and optimise the flow of data to maximise business performance.

This concept, described in detail in the article, will be very important for business and IT in the years to come.

By applying this concept, the complexity of the Business and IT relationship can be simplified.

Which is why I’ve spent the last six years developing an enterprise software that
captures, models and values the relationships between business services, IT assets, resources and data flows. Business and IT can now speak a common language.

Your view that, “IT people are best served by trying to understand” the language of business is one I agree with.

My
advice to IT is to, “Use cost/value as a basis of communication with the business and you will increase the likelihood of being accepted as a trusted part of the organisation.”